Wolf Crawl #45: Goodnight Master Cromwell

   'Have you not said, "All the king's pretensed authority cannot cure his sore leg"? Have you not said, "His leg will kill him one day"? Have you not said, "When Henry dies, then goodnight Master Cromwell"?'

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further resources: Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall

Welcome to Week 45 of Wolf Crawl. I am your guide, Simon Haisell, and this is a year-long slow read of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror & the Light.

Each week, I delve into the details, providing summaries, background, footnotes and tangents to enrich your reading. I am joined on this journey by Bea Stitches, who delves into the archive on our behalf, and Matt Brown, who makes maps to help us find our way through Cromwell’s world.

You can find the reading schedule and plot summaries for the full cast of characters on my website, Footnotes and Tangents. There, you can join other slow reads, including Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower, and Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.

I start each post with a summary of the week’s story, illustrated by a map by Matt Brown. This week, we are reading the second half of Part Four. Chapter II. Corpus Christi, June – December 1538 and Chapter III. Inheritance, December 1538.

In the UK Fourth Estate edition, this section runs from pages 598 to 625. In the US Picador edition, it runs from pages 514 to 537. It begins, “In the first week of November he arrests Lord Montague and the Marquis of Exeter.” It ends, “He is afraid it will answer back.”

This summary is followed by a few footnotes of interest. This week, we say goodnight to the Poles and the Courtenays; the Exeter conspiracy unravels. John Lambert debates our father the king, and Cromwell says nothing. Back at Austin Friars, he pays too dearly for a little bird to sing. In the archives with Bea Stitches, we have letters from our beloved Rafe Sadler, and our “sorrowful friend”, Uncle Norfolk.

And then it is over to you. In the comments, let us know what caught your eye and ask the group any questions you may have. And if you’ve tumbled down a rabbit hole or taken your reading off on a tangent, please share where you have been and what you have found.

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